Teleological Argument

Question 1

What is Aquinas’s teleological argument…

Answer 1

5th way
Natural occurrences = evidence of design
Being that directs all others (archer shooting arrows)
Things lack knowledge - directed by being with immense knowledge (omniscience) God

Question 2

Where did William Paley write his teleological argument

Answer 2

Natural theology

Question 3

Explain design qua purpose

Answer 3

specific telos = world designed 
Watch in Heath 
Complex and intricate, has telos
Wings, fins and eye = specific design 
Design = no chance

Question 4

Explain design qua regularity

Answer 4

Classical physics 
Enabled humanity 
Well constructed plan
Gravity at perfect balance 
God

Question 5

What is Hume’s book called

Answer 5

Dialogues concerning natural religion

Question 6

What were Hume’s criticisms

Answer 6

Weak analogy - cannot compare watch to world
Order does not equal design
Order is necessary part of existence (Epicurian thodicy)
World does not reflect Christian god’s qualities
Group of gods/apprentice God
No other worlds to compare it to

Question 7

Explain Mills’s criticisms in his book ‘nature and utility of religion’

Answer 7

Evil in world = reject notions of design

Goodness in nature outweighed by amounts of suffering

Question 8

Explain challenges from Darwinism

Answer 8

Evolution
Survival of the fittest
Apparent design but random and natural process

Dawkins
Random mutations in DNA